[Recap] Stratton Winter Weekend

Photo: Sean "The Machine" Maguire

While we’re currently salivating over the upcoming Pizza Issue/Pizza Party that’s baking in the oven, the weather in NYC today has reminded us that it is still in fact winter. One of the best parts about this winter (and perhaps any winter we’ve ever spent) was celebrating our Winter Issue‘s release party and winter weekend in Stratton. If you missed it—or just want to relive your favorite weekend in 2017 so far—that’s okay, we do too. Let’s have a look back…

On February 9th, we held a small Winter Issue release party with the guys over at Burton in Soho. Knowing that a few friends weren’t going to be able to make the weekend up in Stratton, we put on the event to make sure we got to catch all our friends and celebrate the new issue properly.

A post shared by Whalebone (@whalebonemagazine) on Feb 10, 2017 at 12:22pm PST

Shoutout to Montauk Brew Co. + Drop Wine for keeping the thirst quenched, DJ Japancakes for the dance move inducing jams and everyone who came to celebrate the new issue. The party in Burton, and afterparty at 310, set the tone for the entire weekend to come.

The next morning, we managed to convince some ~60 odd people to meet up at Bryant Park at noon, which we filed into two Jitney Ambassador stocked with Clif Bars, goodie bags (ridiculously warm Bombas socks + Underhanded gloves) and a significant amount of cold beverages headed up to Stratton. Fueled by a potent amount of caffeine from La Colombe‘s draft lattes and several jugs of a Montauk Rum Runner‘s cider, we made our way to the mountain in stellar fashion.

On arrival, Stratton graciously greeted us a mighty healthy snowfall + beautiful weather planned for the days ahead. Everyone was ready to roll—checking into their rooms and quickly making their way to the village to get a bite and see who was already in motion at one of the staple beverage-serving establishments, 802 Bar. For a small portion of us still buzzing off the bus’ party favors, it ended up being a relatively #active first night.

The next morning, after mobbing the hotel breakfast buffet, everyone picked their poison of either skiing, snowboarding, or watching from inside Grizzly’s with a beer in hand. We don’t think a single frown was had within a 25 mile radius, although we cannot say the same for number of falls and yard sales down the mountain. At one point, we had 30+ people charging down a single trail as a unit. T’was an epic morning.

Around mid-day, we helped set up and launch the highly-competitive snurfing competition put on by Snurferboards and Clif Bar. At its peak, the event amassed 12 brave participants doing four-person races on binding-less snurfboards down the speed-friendly race track. The winner was entire event, after a series of one-on-one death races, was a 12 year old. Bugger was really good.

After a little later afternoon R&R from snurfing and a healthy half-day on the mountain, the crew assembled at Grizzly’s for the Winter Issue’s official debut. The hours and night that followed were nothing short of absurdly awesome: an immense crowd filled the bar and doubled down on dance-floor participation, DJ Japancakes played a ridiculous set then ended with an epic rendition of one “Bohemian Rhapsody,” certain attendees deciding it best to crowd-surf…it was one for the ages and legally we’re not able to discuss anything that happened after the clock struck 11pm. But the fun went on all night long. Here’s one of the photos that is safe to post:

The next day, 85% of our tribe of weekend warriors made it out of bed for a second mobbing of the hotel breakfast buffet, before embarking on the best day of powder on the mountain all weekend. With word in the air that the Jitneys might not be able to run due to ice on the roads, the crew to the liberty of logging a handful of extra runs. When it was revealed that the Jitney’s would be making it back, we rushed to get back, pack up, and make it on the bus back to NYC.

All-in-all, the weekend might have single-handedly been one of the best 48+ hour celebrations of a magazine’s release in the history of mankind. Thanks to all who sacrificed a weekend to come up and hit the slopes with us!